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Gilles Duceppe has been throwing a monkey wrench into the overpriced G8/G20 festivities by sending letters to world leaders promoting Quebec sovereignty.
“As I am sure you are aware, Quebec is a nation in its own right,” Duceppe wrote in the English version of the letter, dated June 9, 2010. “There is a strong political movement to make Quebec a sovereign country, free to levy its own taxes, make all of its own laws and conduct its own international relations. This desire for freedom, which pushes millions of Quebecers toward independence, is a strong political force.”
Well, it is true that most Quebecers do believe that Quebec is already a de facto nation. That would be one reason no one has spoken of referendum up until Lucien Bouchard threw the gauntlet last February. He had even gone in so far as to say that Pauline Marois doesn’t even want to hold a referendum. While Gilles Duceppe was planning to make waves to commemorate the defeat of the Meech Lake Accord and travelling to promote sovereignty, we didn’t really speak of it and the media wasn’t covering it as much as they are today.
However, what about Pauline Marois who has said in the past that she didn’t want to do a referendum in the PQ’s first mandate. Blogger Pierre Luc is wondering if Pauline Marois is now lying. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time a politician lies, so I can get the young blogger’s cynical question. She also hinted at trying to force an election as early as this Fall, given Charest’s growing unpopularity and his shrinking majority. However, I also ventured to say that she is in more of a hurry to do this because her party could well be attempting to turf her out in favour of a leader who would be more popular. She is, after all, polling lower approval numbers than her own party. She could be lying but I don’t think that is the main reason for Gilles Duceppe’s growing actions.
I’m more inclined to agree with another Quebec blogger, Lawrence Griffin, who is suggesting that Duceppe is simply undermining Pauline Marois in an effort to unseat her so he can lead the Parti Quebecois. True, she isn’t promoting sovereignty outside of Quebec the way he is and while she huffs and puffs for Quebec media, Duceppe seems to be doing all the heavy lifting.
We also have to remember that after the disastrous third place finish where Charest’s Liberals won a minority, then PQ leader, Andre Boisclair resigned. The party did ask Marois to come back to bring the party back up. There had also been talk of Duceppe wanting to take the reigns but insiders had decided that Duceppe’s role would better serve Quebec interests in Ottawa. At the time, it was the best decision for Quebec. However has the idea of leading the PQ always been in the back of Duceppe’s mind? Personally, if I were to live in a sovereign Quebec, I would prefer Duceppe to lead it over Marois.
But then, there is another problem; even if and when the PQ does somehow rid itself of Pauline Marois (she too has her own skeletons), it wouldn’t necessarily mean that Duceppe would be the leader. There are two rising ‘stars’ inside the PQ who could potentially lead and win an election anytime over the Liberals, with or without the scandals Charest seems to be living with these days. These ‘stars’ are Pierre Curzi and Bernard Drainville.
While I’m inclined to believe Griffin’s theory, I also think there may be another reason. Duceppe might well be attempting to separate himself from any of that coalition chatter. Steve and his attack ads for the upcoming election will no doubt attempt to convincingly include the ‘separatists’ in some kind of coalition with Liberals/NDP. If Duceppe keeps making noise about Quebec sovereignty, it wouldn’t lend credibility to that whole separatists joining any coalitions this time around. As I’ve mentioned before, entering into a coalition with federalist parties does take away his credibility and would be counterproductive.
To that end, Duceppe is simply better off leading his party on a case by case basis as he has always done.
As for Pauline Marois, she will no doubt be circling Charest’s Liberals over the summer, waiting to see if there will be other resignations or firings to come, thus, perhaps, sending the Quebec Liberals to a minority situation as she needs to have an election sooner rather than later, before the perfect storm arises for her own party to oust her; before the Liberal party could reverse its’ fortunes (not likely any time soon, but if Charest did decide to resign over the summer…and a new, effective leader were put into place, well, never can tell…). As things stand right now, Charest still has a majority in the National Assembly and even if Marois were to be propped up by the Quebec Solidaire MNA, whatever is left of the now decimated ADQ and the independents, she doesn’t have the numbers to trigger a fall election.
Sidenote: Jennifer Crane, a Liberal strategist who participates in Tommy Schnurmacher’s Friday political panel asked a good question to the Conservative pundit; why is it ok for the Harpercons to be propped up but never the NDP or the Liberals. He didn’t really come up with a good answer for that. And yes, the BQ have on a number of occasions propped up the Harpercons as well as having been in that famous coalition/cooperation letter Steve wrote to then GG Adrienne Clarkson.
Pierre Luc should be more concerned with what his co-bloggers are up to, as opposed to developments in the pequiste/ Bloc camp.
The part of the story that’s missing is the reaction of the blogging tories, they are wholeheartedly in the Duceppe camp,those addressing the issue in any event, promising Quebecers that even if they are not yet decided and not willing to leave, the blogging tories are eager to boot them out.
For instance, today’s contribution from Climbing Out of the Dark:
“As for the government going in the right direction? Quebec slants the numbers. They are so used to sucking at the governments teat that they just can’t imagine standing up on their own. Good luck with separating, if you don’t want to go, the rest of Canada wants you to leave! I suggest we hold a Canada wide referendum, because socialist Quebec will be booted out of Canada so fast, they won’t know why they were complaining in the first place. Let the whining begin.”
And from similar discussions at Chuckercanuck’s, Iceman’s, Adrian McNair’s blogs, there’s a similar consensus, let’s give Quebec the boot and the sooner the better. Some even want to throw in Newfoundland for good measure. With this kind of a lineup, I think you can reasonably envisage an electoral coalition between the Bloc and the Conservatives with the perspective of closing the curtain on Canada.
This doesn’t surprise me from the Bloc leader, pretty much par for the course for Duceppe, but with all these Leonard Jones speaking out publicly in the name of the Conservatives, advocating the breakup of Canada, they are doing some serious political damage to their party, and their electoral prospects in Quebec and elsewhere, if this continues unchallenged. It hardly jives with the image they seek to project.
ck Reply:
June 13th, 2010 at 3:15 PM
Good ol’ Hunter! Never fails to entertain in the midst of her shrieking; this coming from a woman who thinks Steve is oh so dreamy.
Interesting thought you brought up regarding ‘coalition’ of bloc & Harpercons. As that Liberal pundit pointed out on the radio Friday; it seems to be ok for Steve to use the Bloc to prop him up but not ok for others to do so. So much for what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Like some kind of deal perhaps; to leave Canada? Gilles precipitates Quebec exit in exchange for Steve not running any candidates in Quebec. It works well for him as it would be disastrous for the Liberals as they would further lose their Quebec seats. NDP only loses one. Mulcair the mouth would surely find someplace else to go.
Of course, that also means lost seats for Harpercons; such prominent Harpercons like Ex-Lax Max (who I’m sure Steve would like to see gone, anyway) and Lawrence Cannon and Christian Paradis and Bernard Genereux and others.
I posted about Alberta and Quebec and about equalization payments; how vulnerable even mighty Alberta can be, etc. Not sure if you caught it. I’m sure many haven’t. Even if they did, in spite of the links I provided to back up the arguments (which I’m sure not many would bother clicking), it is disregarded.
Are you from Quebec, Dupmar? I noticed you commenting at other blogs; you seem to have an interest and some knowledge. Good for you. I’m always happy to meet bloggers from Montreal or anywhere from Quebec.
you’re right about Pierre-Luc though; he’s from the south shore of Quebec City; lots of rural villages and farm country surrounding it’s ‘capital’ of Levis. Pity, really, he’s so young. When push will finally come to shove; I wonder where his loyalties would lie?
Same would go for that other Francophone Blogging Tory from Rural Quebec; David Chretien (I’m sure no relation to Papa Jean)?.
I’m Manitoban per my birth certificate, family is several generations Manitoban going back to days of the Riel rebellion, father studied at Laval as did my mother, as did I, Quebec ancestry hails back to Capitaine Joseph Elzear Bernier, Arctic explorer, maritime museum named after him in Quebec city, beloved pioneer of the Canadian Arctic per the current government. I did my Cegep and university studies in Quebec, U of M, McGill, Concordia, Laval, U of Ottawa, used to be quite active in my university years on the nationalist left in Quebec, rounded up as a Cegep student during the War Measures Act as some sort of dangerous nationalist agitator, shared a jail cell during such period, and subsequent protests, with the likes of Alain Dubuc, currently on the editorial board of La Presse and being courted not so long ago as star candidate for the Liberals in Outremont, gravitated towards the Progressive Conservatives and defended their constitutional perspectives for Quebec in the Trudeau and post-Trudeau years during the debates over the repatriation of the constitution, Meech Lake and so forth, spent a good deal of my professional life in Quebec working in Montreal before job demands took me out of Quebec. But I still retain a good deal of affection for Quebec, think fondly of my upbringing, education and ties to Quebec and am one of the last you could imagine to be found in the company of ” let’s give Quebec the boot from Canada” crowd.
ck Reply:
June 13th, 2010 at 6:31 PM
Thanks for sharing Dupmar. No, I know you’re not part of the ‘let’s kick Quebec out of Canada brigade’.
In fact those in that brigade may want to be careful what they wish for. It may all be more trouble and more expensive for Ottawa and by extension, the other provinces should Quebec be either booted out or leaves by winning result of a referendum.
Remember, usually when a couple married for a long time with kids and many assets; moveable and immoveable; generally, both parties’ standard of living goes down. I think the same would be held true of a Quebec separation.
I think it’s time for Gilles Duceppe to change gears now. Instead of writing letters to world leaders announcing an intent to have a referendum on sovereignty, how’s about he try to outline to Quebecers what a sovereign Quebec would (potentially) look like? That always seems to lack whenever some sovereignty movement breaths life.
As to the content of Duceppe’s argument, there is one assertion which is untested, and deserves to be challenged, to wit:
“On top of this, Canadians refuse to negotiate with Quebec and reject all compromises in advance”.
Simply stated, the current Charest government has presented no constitutional demands to the government of Canada, nor formulated any for consideration. If it was simply a matter of submitting proposals to the blogging tories, I would agree that anything and everything would be rejected out of hand, but pretensions and delusions aside, those such as “Hunter” do not speak for the rest of Canada.
The Bloc/ PQ do not have solid support, a solid mandate behind them for sovereignty, and will not unless they first gain office and then establish that all attempts at constitutional reform and compromise have been honestly attempted and exhausted. But they have not even made the minimal attempt to formulate demands outside of this “all or nothing” perspective, that is they have concluded the outcome without even making the effort.
This is hardly an honest attempt to set forth perspectives and negotiate in good faith.
ck Reply:
June 13th, 2010 at 7:13 PM
I agree with you there.
Because of the mistakes they’ve been making and Charest hisself has not even made any attempt to negotiate any constitutional demands to the feds. Why? I can take a few guesses. There is no love lost between Steve and himself. Charest is an old hardcore member of Mulroney’s camp. Arguably, he is where he is today because of Mulroney. We remember how Steve threw Brian under the bus. As a matter of fact, many have speculated that he may well be looking to take Steve’s place at the helm. But then, that was before all those scandals hit him over winter and spring. All that to say that negotiations between Charest and Steve would have been an impossibility.
Another reason would be like most Quebecers really believe they already live in a de facto nation anyway, Charest, who was always more of a federalist than his liberal predecessors ever were, probably believed that we were going to remain a part of Canada and in spite of huffing and puffing from Pauline Marois, who I don’ t think many take seriously, anyway, believed that there was nothing left to discuss.
Kind of like that ol’ let sleeping dogs lie kinda thing, isn’t it?
The dogs are awake now and before another train wreck happens, as I’ve mentioned, Duceppe has to outline what a sovereign Quebec would look like.
Unfortunately, nowadays, Duceppe/Marois would be negotiating from a point of weakness.